US Marine historians

[JohnTRourke]

I need some help

My father in law (passed 15 years now) was a Marine in both WWII and Korea. For almost the entire time in both. Beyond his name and that I know little and his kids seem to know less than that.

It's a somewhat unique name and I know about when and where he enlisted.

Any ideas on where to start on finding out some more information?

[Aloha_Shooter]

There was a central repository for veterans' records where you could get that information. I think it was in St. Louis. Problem is, I seem to recall them losing a lot of records in a huge fire.

Try https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel

If you are a veteran or next-of-kin of a deceased veteran, you may now use vetrecs.archives.gov (http://vetrecs.archives.gov) to order a copy of your military records. For all others, your request is best made using a Standard Form 180 (https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/standard-form-180.html). It includes complete instructions for preparing and submitting requests. Please Note: All requests must be in writing, signed and mailed to us at the address shown below.

National Personnel Records Center
1 Archives Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63138

Telephone: 314-801-0800
Status Check: Online Status Update Request Form *
Fax: 314-801-9195
Checking the Status of Your Request:

Once you have allowed sufficient time for us to receive and process your request (about 10 days), you may check the status of your request by using the Online Status Update Request form.

You may also telephone the NPRC Customer Service Line (this is a long-distance call for most customers):

Telephone: 314-801-0800
Telephone (Toll Free): 1-866-272-6272

Note: Our peak calling times are weekdays between 10:00 am CST and 3:00 pm CST. Staff is available to take your call as early as 7:00 am and as late as 5:00 pm cst.

[Martinjmpr]

Go to this web page, they have a nice tutorial on how to do a FOIA request.

http://thisainthell.us/blog/?page_id=39605

[Wulf202]

"Please note:   Records are accessioned into the National Archives, and become archival, 62 years after the service member's separation from the military. This is a rolling date; hence, the current year, 2015, minus 62 years is 1953. "

[Great-Kazoo]

I need some help

My father in law (passed 15 years now) was a Marine in both WWII and Korea. For almost the entire time in both. Beyond his name and that I know little and his kids seem to know less than that.

It's a somewhat unique name and I know about when and where he enlisted.

Any ideas on where to start on finding out some more information?

I called the archives aloha posted. With paperwork, turn around time was 3 weeks. Providing they can locate info requested. Korean Police Action is getting hit or miss, WW II minimal.

[JohnTRourke]

So, I send all this to the wife
She says "oh, i have that, my brother did that"
<heavy sigh>

ummmmmmmmmmmmm, well, where is it?
She's looking
I figure if I can get unit numbers and such I can figure out where he was.

I shall update as I find out more

Thank you so much

[Great-Kazoo]

So, I send all this to the wife
She says "oh, i have that, my brother did that"
<heavy sigh>

ummmmmmmmmmmmm, well, where is it?
She's looking
I figure if I can get unit numbers and such I can figure out where he was.

I shall update as I find out more

Thank you so much


You should contact them anyway. Who knows what if any awards, or medals he might not have received.
Our dad had a few he never accepted. By the time they sent them, he wasn't coherent enough to tell us about them. He never talked about his time in Korea, ever. Everything else from the time he left home @ 17 joined the merchant marines, as a cop, we heard it. Outside of enlisting to "fight them damn commies MacArthur should have been allowed to deal with" silence .

[Irving]

My grandfather received some medals, one for saving a guy's life. A week or two before he died he told me, "I saved the wrong guy. The guy I saved was an asshole about it the whole time." Two guys were in trouble in the water and my grandfather swam out and pulled on in to shore. He swam out to get the other guy but he had drowned by that time.

[izzy]

I'm going to use this for sure. I've got some info about my grandfather who was a Marine in WWII that I'd like to learn.

[Wulf202]

It's looking like both of my relatives I would like to find the records for were destroyed in the fire.

[JohnTRourke]

well shit

I tell the wife all this and she says "oh, i have those records"

unbelievable

Been crawling thru them (there isn't much)
Dec 31, 1941 to Feb 1946, then back in march of 1950 until released in October of 52

WWII, i can't really figure out much but it looks like mostly stateside and pearl harbor (3rd Anti aircraft group, 3rd defense Bn, FMF), AA defense and rocketry then i see replacement draft, 1st Marines FMF(?) in May of 1945, discharged as a PFC

Korea easier to read. Serv Btry, 4th BN, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division in as a CPL, out as a SGT. Arrived via Pusan Korea on Jan 51 and departed Korea Dec 51, discharged in oct of 52

MOS's 3" AA Gunner (601), Rocket Man (588), Flame Thrower (781), primary Flame Thrower

[leatherneck448]

WWII, i can't really figure out much but it looks like mostly stateside and pearl harbor (3rd Anti aircraft group, 3rd defense Bn, FMF), AA defense and rocketry then i see replacement draft, 1st Marines FMF(?) in May of 1945, discharged as a PFC
FMF stands for Fleet Marine Force. Not 100% on this but May of '45 was right in the middle of the Okinawan campaign, in which 1st Marines was doing a lot of the work. It's very possible he could have gotten pulled over there and cycled into an infantry battalion for the last month or so, especially if he had a flamethrower MOS. (Though details provided are kind of vague as to when those MOS's were actually earned)



Korea easier to read. Serv Btry, 4th BN, 11th Marines, 1st Marine Division in as a CPL, out as a SGT. Arrived via Pusan Korea on Jan 51 and departed Korea Dec 51, discharged in oct of 52

MOS's 3" AA Gunner (601), Rocket Man (588), Flame Thrower (781), primary Flame Thrower

Not too much knowledge to say much here. 4/11 was an artillery battery here on Camp Pendleton, but has been disbanded for quite a while. 1/11, 2/11, 3/11, and 5/11 are the only ones around right now to my knowledge. I'm assuming Serv. Btry is something akin to a headquarters or H&S company (battery in this case. arty is a weird bunch), though I'm not sure what he would have been doing in country given his MOS's. Pusan was essentially the port city that shuttled guys in/out of the southeastern tip of Korea once it was captured. Jan-Dec 51 means he would have gotten there pretty much immediately following Chosin Reservoir (Nov. of 50 I think). A google would probably do a better job than me, but I'm pretty sure that 1st MarDiv was involved in the spring offensive, and then essentially set up a division sized defense immediately following that. Also not sure if guys ever rotated home/got relieved/RIP'ed by another unit in Korea, or if they were just expected to stay there for the duration of the war like WW2. That could answer some questions as to how he left the country.

This was kind of shot from the hip, so I wouldn't treat it as gospel. A legit historian would do you better.
Hope some of this helped, or at least served as a starting point for you. Let me know if you have any questions.

-Kenny

[Martinjmpr]

I would think there should be enough info there that you can pull his DD-214, that should show any campaign awards and might give you a clue as to which campaigns he participated in.

Back in the days before "identity theft" was a thing, veterans were encouraged to register their DD-214's at the county courthouse in case they ever needed to obtain a copy of it. Maybe find out what county he lived in when he was discharged and see if the courthouse has a record of it?

[JohnTRourke]

Thanks leatherneck448, that was very helpful, there was a couple indications of H & S, but I had no idea what that was (still don't, what is it?) and yes it said Camp Pendtleton and a couple other areas in Cali, Pearl harbor and one for school (for rocketry) in utah..

Yeah, the 1952 DD214 was in the pile. Korea war ribbon is all it says.

[Martinjmpr]

I would use the internet to try and see if you can find other people he might have served with who could still be out there.

[leatherneck448]

there was a couple indications of H & S, but I had no idea what that was (still don't, what is it?) and yes it said Camp Pendtleton and a couple other areas in Cali, Pearl harbor and one for school (for rocketry) in utah.

H&S stands for Headquarters & Service. Essentially the company where all the support personnel of a unit are assigned. This can be anything from cooks, to mechanics, to radio operators, to administrative guys. Given the MOS's you listed above, I'm assuming he was placed there as a part of some kind of a defense attachment for the battery. That said, I'm not an artillery guy, and I definitely don't know how they operated 65+ years ago so he could very well have just been assigned to H&S from another battery within 4/11, which is something that's fairly commonplace nowadays for guys that get hurt, guys that show up from other commands with non-applicable MOS's, etc.

Hope this helped out,
-Kenny

[wctriumph]

My father was in Korea, started out in a weapons platoon, was wounded and after recuperating he went back as a combat corpsman. He only talked about his experiences with my brother and I once at the urging of our mother. When he passed the local VFA (he was not a member but some of his shooting buddies were) gave him a military honor guard ceremony at his funeral and read off a list of his citations. The only one we all knew about was his Purple Heart. He also had received two Bronze Stars and a citation for bravery while under fire as a medic, even my mother did not know about them.

The VFA did all of the research and presented it to our mother, his whole military record. They did all of this in just a few days from his passing to his funeral. If you know someone with the VFA, maybe they can help you out.